Maharashtra to get 2 more private varsities

The green signal for Ajinkya DY Patil University and MIT University in Pune comes close on the heels of the state government’s approval for Amity University and Spicer Adventist University

Pune: The Congress-led state government has given its approval for two private universities Ajinkya DY Patil University and MIT University. The nod was given in course of the weekly meeting of the state cabinet on Wednesday. Both the institutions are expected to start operations in the ongoing academic session.

The green signal for Ajinkya and MIT comes close at the heels of approval for two other universities. On June 14, the state passed legislations for private universities Amity University and Spicer Adventist University, and said that both were to start offering academic courses this year itself.

While the Amity University campus is located at Bhatan near Panvel, the other three universities Spicer Adventist, Ajinkya DY and MIT will come up in Pune. To enable both the new universities to start their operations, the state cabinet has also decided to ask state governor K Shankaranayanan to issue an ordinance, as no legislature session is scheduled before the state assembly elections due in October.

The campus for Ajinkya DY Patil University will be at Lohgaon in Pune, and is being set up by Ajinkya Patil, son of education baron and Bihar governor D Y Patil, who is at the helm of a vast network of educational institutions in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Pune and surrounding areas.

MIT, headed by Dr V D Karad, is a well-known group that runs a cluster of institutions concentrated in and around Pune, along with a few others scattered across the state. While the bills for Amity and Spicer Adventist have already acquired legal status with an approval from the state governor, the ordinances issued for Ajinkya DY Patil and MIT will be discussed during the winter session of the state legislature, when the state will have a new government after the general elections due in October.